DOHA, Qatar, Feb. 23, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The GSMA today announced the launch of the Connected Women Commitment Initiative, aimed at reducing the mobile gender gap. Initial commitments by GSMA operator members, with over 75 million mobile internet and mobile money customers, will aim to connect millions more women in low- and middle-income countries by 20201.

These operators will seek to increase the proportion of their female customers to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. This builds on the 15 million women already benefiting from female-focused services offered by the GSMA's Connected Women operator partners.

"In an increasingly connected world, women are currently being left behind," said Mats Granryd, Director General, GSMA. "GSMA research2 estimates there are 200 million fewer women than men who own a mobile phone in low- and middle-income countries. But even when women do own a mobile device, they are far less likely to use it for more sophisticated services, such as mobile internet and mobile money, and therefore miss out on key socio-economic opportunities. Ensuring digital and financial inclusion for women is critically important, as when women thrive, societies, businesses and economies thrive."

The first GSMA operator members to have made Connected Women Commitments in their markets include Dialog Axiata PLC in Sri Lanka, Digi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd (Digi) in Malaysia, Indosat Ooredoo in Indonesia, Ooredoo Maldives, Ooredoo Myanmar, Robi Axiata Limited in Bangladesh, Tigo Rwanda and Turkcell in Turkey. Existing and potential commitments amongst the mobile operators include, for example: increasing the number of female agents; improving the data top-up process to be safer and more appealing to women; and improving digital literacy among women through educational programmes and interactive content. Closing the gender gap in mobile phone ownership and usage in the developing world could unlock an estimated US$170 billion market opportunity for the mobile industry in the period 2015-2020.

H.E. Sheikh Saud Bin Nasser Al Thani, Group Chief Executive Officer, Ooredoo: "Mobile technology has a profound impact in enriching people's lives and creating new opportunities for growth. However, a large percentage of women across the world are deprived of these possibilities due to challenges in accessing and using mobile phones and mobile internet. We are pleased to support GSMA's Connected Women Commitment, with the aim to extend the opportunities of mobile technology to all women in Indonesia, Myanmar and the Maldives, ensuring that they too can reap its remarkable benefits for economic and social development."

Dato' Sri Jamaludin Ibrahim, Managing Director, President and Group Chief Executive Officer, Axiata: "As a Group committed to the acceleration of the digital economy, Axiata welcomes efforts under the GSMA Connected Women programme to bridge the digital divide in the mobile industry. There is much more operators can do to encourage gender diversity and increase women's ownership and use of the mobile phone. Improved access to mobile services opens up possibilities for women and girls in education, healthcare, enterprise and business. As such, Axiata supports initiatives for greater gender inclusion and equal opportunities in all the markets where we operate."

Albern Murty, Chief Executive Officer, Digi: "Digi is happy to partner with the GSMA in a collective effort to bring mobile connectivity to more women globally. In Malaysia, six million women have yet to access the internet, and bridging the digital gender gap will help ensure these women can be active participants and contributors in the digital economy. We hope to see every Malaysian woman connected and empowered because we believe these efforts will cause a socio-economic ripple effect for the betterment of families, communities and society at large. In support of the GSMA's Connected Women initiative, we commit to increasing the proportion of women in our mobile internet customer base in Malaysia from 42 per cent to 47 per cent by 2020."

Tongai Maramba, Chief Executive Officer, Tigo Rwanda: "Tigo Rwanda is committed to increasing the number of women using mobile financial services from 39 per cent to 45 per cent by 2020. Women take on a significant amount of responsibility for their families' financial management, including emergency payments, remittances and daily domestic management; in fact women direct up to 90 per cent of their income to their families and communities. Increasing women's access to mobile financial services will in turn allow them to improve their quality of life, that of their families and that of their communities."

Ebru Darip, Strategic Marketing Director, Turkcell: "Creating equal opportunities for women is one of Turkcell's top priorities. Our corporate social responsibility projects span a wide range of issues varying from women's economic inclusion to girls' education. We also carry out our core business of providing communication and technology services in a way that meets the needs of women, especially through Turkcell's Smart Women Club, which connects 2.8 million women from all over Turkey. We commit to improving mobile data use among women which will contribute significantly to our efforts of facilitating and enriching our customers' lives. We are proud to be a part of this initiative which unites communication companies around a goal which has been central to our approach for a very long time."

Notes to Editors

1 Participating operators have committed to increase the proportion of women in their mobile internet and/or mobile money customer base. 75 million customers include the current mobile internet or mobile money customer bases for which a commitment has been made through this initiative.

The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting nearly 800 operators with more than 250 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software companies, equipment providers and internet companies, as well as organisations in adjacent industry sectors. The GSMA also produces industry-leading events such as Mobile World Congress, Mobile World Congress Shanghai and the Mobile 360 Series conferences.

For more information, please visit the GSMA corporate website at www.gsma.com. Follow the GSMA on Twitter: @GSMA.

About Ooredoo

Ooredoo is a leading international communications company delivering mobile, fixed, broadband internet and corporate managed services tailored to the needs of consumers and businesses across markets in the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia. As a community-focused company, Ooredoo is guided by its vision of enriching people's lives and its belief that it can stimulate human growth by leveraging communications to help people achieve their full potential. Ooredoo has a presence in markets such as Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Algeria, Tunisia, Iraq, Palestine, the Maldives, Myanmar and Indonesia. The company was named "Most Innovative Company of the Year – MEA Region" at the 2015 International Business Awards.

The company reported revenues of US$ 9.1 billion in 2014 and had a consolidated global customer base of 114.9 million customers as of 30 September 2015. Ooredoo's shares are listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.